A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telephone equipment and related diagnostic features.
B. Related Art
Conventional digital telephones will sometimes include one or more data communications ports. Such data communications ports will typically include signal lines for transmitted data, received data and one or more control signals such as data terminal ready (DTR). In some of these telephones, such as the ROLMphone 244PC, the status of data communications signals is displayed by dedicated light emitting diodes (LEDs) located on the back of the telephone, in proximity to the physical data communications connector.
An example of such a telephone is illustrated in FIG. 1. The telephone 100 of FIG. 1 includes a plurality of keys 102A-J. For each of the keys 102 A-J there is a corresponding adjacently located LED 104 A-J. The telephone of FIG. 1 is also provided with volume control keys 106, 108 (which have no corresponding LEDs), a handset 110, a liquid crystal display 112, and a telephone keypad 114. A RS-232 data communications port 116 and a telephone network port 118 (for connection to a branch exchange system) are provided at the rear of the telephone.
A rear view of the telephone of FIG. 1 is illustrated in FIG. 2. As will be observed from FIG. 2, the telephone includes a power input connector 202, and a row of LEDs 204 which indicate whether the telephone has adequate power and the status of a subset of the data communications lines on the data communications port 116. For example, the LEDs 204 may indicate, from left to right, the status of DTR, transmitted data (Tx), received data (Rx) and the power supply.
A problem with having the diagnostic LEDs at the rear of the telephone is that they can be awkward to use. For example, movement of the telephone to view the diagnostic LEDs can cause entanglement or disconnection of data communications, telephony and power cables attached to the telephone at the rear. The action of moving the phone can also cause the cables to interfere with other items on the desk on which the telephone sits. Further, the fact that the LEDs are dedicated to diagnostics, but only occasionally viewed by the user, results in unnecessary cost in parts and manufacturing.